Metagem requirements and bi-spectrum gems

I can understand your consternation, Vaughn; I actually got into a slight dispute with my guildmates about this very question a while back. ;)

Here's the straight dope:

Multi-coloured gems count as both (or, in the case of two "Spheres," all three) of their colours. Thus, a "Green" gem will count as both a Yellow and a Blue gem for the sake of Meta-Gem requirements; likewise, an "Orange" gem will count as both a Yellow and Red gem. The colours of the sockets themselves are immaterial, so a "Purple" gem in a Yellow socket will still count as one Red gem and one Blue gem for the Meta-Gem.

This, however, brings up an interesting conundrum. What if you have a Meta-Gem like the Mystical Skyfire Diamond, which requires that a player have more Blue gems than Yellow gems socketed in their equipped armour, and you possess a number of Green (i.e. Yellow and Blue) gems?

That's right, they'll effectively cancel themselves out, as each counts as both one Yellow gem and one Blue gem. Tricksy, eh?

That's how Meta-Gem requirements are meant to work. If you can give me an example of one that doesn't seem to follow those rules, I can see whether there are any known issues that would be preventing that specific Meta-Gem from functioning normally. Let me know, if you would. :)

This thread is veering dangerously off-topic, folks; can we please try to rein it in? :)

Q u o t e:
On a side note, I have never seen any notice of the 300 occaisional mana that this meta gem is supposed to grant me (2% on spellcast). Is that a known issue?

I just tested this out, and the mana restoration is definitely occurring; if you check your Combat Log over a period of time, you'll notice "You gain 300 Mana from Mana Restore" every so often; additionally, if you enable Floating Combat Text in your Interface Options, then check "Show Energy Gains," it should display there as well. Note that it's not a particularly frequent effect, however, so you may just not be noticing it. Let me know. :)